Editorial | State should serve children, the public

Jun. 3, 2012

A pink granite bench was placed in memory of Amy Dye, who died as a result of abuse, at Todd County Elementary School in Western Kentucky.

Another school year has passed for children in Todd County since the death of their classmate, nine-year-old Amy Dye, the Western Kentucky girl fatally bludgeoned by her adoptive brother.

Local citizens recently placed a pink, granite bench in her memory at Todd County Elementary, which she attended until Feb. 4, 2011, the bitterly cold night she was beaten to death at home while being forced to shovel gravel as punishment for stealing food. Todd Elementary is the same school where teachers — concerned Amy was being mistreated at home — tried and failed to convince state child welfare officials to act on their repeated reports of suspected abuse.

In the end, Amy died a violent death after months of horrifying mistreatment, according to details that emerged afterward. The case of Amy, a slender girl with bright blue eyes and caramel skin, has come to represent the failures of the child welfare system in Kentucky and dominated debate over the need for reforms.

Yet, inexplicably, the state continues to drag out a protracted and costly legal battle in its fight to withhold child welfare records related to Amy’s death and deaths of the dozens of other children who have died or been seriously injured from abuse or neglect in recent years.

Even as officials produce pages of heavily redacted records of such cases, the legal battle stretches into its third year with no immediate end in sight.

This legal battle is being carried out by a team of state lawyers with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services led by Christina Heavrin at taxpayer expense, despite repeated losses in court where the state has been ordered to pay costs now approaching $100,000.

The extensive trail of litigation, in lawsuits brought by The Courier-Journal, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Todd County Standard, is now before the state Court of Appeals, thanks to cabinet lawyers who have chosen to pursue the cases despite claims of cooperation. The litigation is littered with duplicity, stonewalling and spectacular arrogance by cabinet lawyers who at times have shown little regard for the truth.

It drags on despite the posturing of Gov. Steve Beshear — who called a press conference in November to announce the state was dropping its fight to withhold records and would cooperate with the order of Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd to release them under state open records law. The Governor, to underscore his pledge, cited Amy’s death as the reason for the supposed turnaround.

“Our children, especially our vulnerable childen, deserve our protection,” Mr. Beshear said. “When our system fails to offer that protection, as it did in the case of Amy Dye’s tragic death, we must review our strategies to improve them.”

“Transparency will be the new rule,” he announced.

Two months later, the Governor hastily backtracked as cabinet lawyers reversed course and appealed Judge Shepherd’s order to release hundreds of pages of records in cases of child abuse deaths and serious injuries.

“We don’t think the judge’s order was protective enough,” Mr. Beshear said at the time.

Protective enough of whom?

Judge Shepherd in his initial order in the Amy Dye case wrote that the state appeared mostly intent on protecting itself by first denying it even had any records about her, then fighting to keep them secret once they were uncovered.

“This case presents a tragic example of the potentially deadly consequences of a child welfare system that has completely insulated itself from meaningful public scrutiny,” the judge wrote.

Momentum is building throughout the region to take steps to end child abuse deaths and injuries. It is a childhood affliction that is “completely preventable,” according to Dr. Stephen Wright, medical director at Kosair Children’s Hospital where battered children often wind up. An opinion piece by Dr. Wright appears on the front page of this section.

It is time for the Beshear administration to join in this effort by working out a solution for true transparency of records that disclose circumstances in which children die or nearly die from abuse or neglect. The protracted legal battle serves no one, least of all child victims of abuse.

A new secretary, Audrey Haynes, recently took over the embattled Cabinet for Health and Family Services, prompting hope from lawmakers and advocates of more progressive leadership and change.

One of Ms. Haynes’ first undertakings must be to exercise control of the cabinet’s legal department and bring about a successful resolution to the child abuse records litigation, one that serves children and the public instead of cabinet lawyers and bureaucrats.